By Rick Broida
January 18, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO – Here we are at the end of my weeklong series on AutoHotkey, one of the unsung heroes of the Windows world.

With this free tool, you can auto-complete text as you type, make the Backspace key navigate folders the way it used to, strip the formatting from pasted text, and much more.

You can also change the function of your middle mouse button for individual programs. Amazing, right? Over at Lifehacker, there’s a script that enables you to delete e-mails from your Outlook inbox just by middle-clicking them.

Behind the scenes, the script monitors the Outlook window for a middle-click (which on some mice means a click of the scroll wheel). When it detects one, it reproduces a left-button click (to select the message) and a press of Ctrl-D (to delete it). Clever, huh?

Interestingly, this also works with the calendar: just middle-click an appointment to delete it.

The instructions at Lifehacker are very clear, so I won’t reproduce them here. I will say that if you’re an Outlook user, you’re about to fall in love with AutoHotkey–and your middle mouse button.